Removable hard drive module for a computer with improved thermal performance

ABSTRACT

A removable hard drive magazine for a computer with improved thermal performance has been developed. The invention includes a hot pluggable magazine module for organizing multiple hard drives in a computer that includes multiple of hard drives and a sleeve with a plurality of rail slots in the side of the sleeve. A slide rail is attached to the side of each hard drive, where the slide rail is inserted into a rail slot of the sleeve so that the slide rail is exposed externally to the sleeve and is in contact with a thermally conductive elastomeric coupler. A hard drive receptacle that is mounted in the computer is included. The receptacle includes guide slots that mate with the exposed slide rails of the hard drives. A heat sink is mounted on the receptacle that receives heat transferred from the plurality of hard drives through the thermally conductive elastomeric coupler. Finally, a backplane located in rear of the hard drive receptacle, where the backplane attaches the module to the computer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/409,296 titled “Removable Hard Drive Module for a Computer”that was filed on Apr. 21, 2006.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to computer hardware components. Morespecifically, the invention relates to a removable module that containscomputer hard drives.

BACKGROUND ART

A computer “hard drive” is a memory device that stores data for acomputer. It is also called a “hard disk drive” or “hard disk”. Thecomputer houses a hard disk, where files and folders of computer dataare physically located. The data is stored on the hard drivemagnetically, so it stays on the drive even after the power supply isturned off.

As the capabilities of computer systems expand, the demand alsoincreases for more data storage capacity. This is especially true forportable computer systems where physical space is typically at apremium. It is also advantageous to have a system where hard drives canbe installed and removed as a set of multiple hard drives for exchangeor transfer of data from one computer to another. At other times forsoftware upgrades, At times hard drives fail and individual hard drivesmust be replaced, etc. Consequently, a need exists for a removable harddrive module that contains multiple hard drives in an organized set withthe flexibility to replace individual hard drives for a computer. Insome occasions the computer cannot be taken off line or turned off andthe hard drives may need to be removed and replaced as a set or asindividual drives while the computer continues to run. This has beencalled a hot pluggable or hot swap hard drive system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some aspects, the invention relates to a hot pluggable module fororganizing multiple hard drives in a computer, comprising: a pluralityof hard drives; a sleeve with a plurality of rail slots in the side ofthe sleeve; at least one slide rail that is attached to the side of eachhard drive, where the slide rail is inserted into a rail slot of thesleeve so that the slide rail is exposed externally to the sleeve and isin contact with a thermally conductive elastomeric coupler; a hard drivereceptacle that is mounted in the computer, where the receptacleincludes guide slots that mate with the exposed slide rails of the harddrives; a heat sink mounted on the receptacle that receives heattransferred from the plurality of hard drives through the thermallyconductive elastomeric coupler; and a backplane located in rear of thehard drive receptacle, where the backplane attaches the module to thecomputer.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

It should be noted that identical features in different drawings areshown with the same reference numeral.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a perspective view and an exploded view of amultiple hard drive module in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 shows an exploded view of a single hard drive in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show an exploded view and a side view of a multiple harddrive module and a computer in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 4A-4D show exploded views of multiple hard drive modules inaccordance with alternative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an exploded view of a multiple hard drive module with asingle hard drive removed in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show side views of multiple hard drive modules withdifferent air gaps between hard drives in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a cut away view of a computer with cooling fans for thehard drive modules in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 8-11 show different views of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention that uses a thermally conductive elastomeric couplerto transfer heat away from the hard drives.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a module containing multiple hard drives whichcan be inserted and removed as an organized set of hard drives into areceptacle. The receptacle provides precision mechanical alignment andelectrical connection of the set of hard drives into a hard driveconnector backplane. The hard drive backplane provides for a power andsignal interconnect so that they can be interconnected to all necessarycomponents for proper operation of the computer. The system provides forthe removal and insertion of a set of drives with the computer turnedoff or turned on and operating. Individual drives can be removed andreplaced from the multiple hard drive module without the need to firstremove the multiple hard disk module from its receptacle. This allowsdefective drives to be individually replaced while other hard driveswithin the module continue to function normally in the computer.

The multiple hard drive module allow the hard drives to be precisionspaced so that a predetermined air space exist between hard drives toprovide for air flow for cooling the hard drives. Two guide railsattached to each hard drive in the module precisely guide and align eachhard drive into individual precision placed connectors on the receptaclebackplane. A binder bar loosely but positively attaches all hard drivesto the modules organizer sleeve. The organizer sleeve allows the harddrive set to be handled, inserted, removed, transported, stored andmanaged as a set and does not interfere with the precision alignmentrail function of each hard drive which allows the receptacle toindividually align each hard drive for a precise docking of each harddrive to its corresponding backplane connector. Detaching the binder barallows one or more individual hard drives to be removed from the sleeve.This can be done regardless of weather the module is inserted into thereceptacle and docked and actively operating in the backplane, or themodule is removed from the receptacle and placed on a table.

The receptacle includes precision fabricated slots which mate with eachhard drive's pair of rails and precisely align each hard drive to thereceptacles connector backplane. The backplane is designed in such asway that air can flow from the front of the drive to the rear of thedrive with air flow allowed to freely flow through openings in thebackplane and into the interior of the computer chassis where fans aretypically located to assist with airflow. A retainer bar or retentionlatch system securely and firmly hold the multiple hard drive module tothe receptacle for transport while installed in the computer.

The hard drive module receptacle system allows the flexibility to have asingle large multiple hard drive module plug into a single receptacle oralternatively multiple smaller modules continue a smaller number of harddrives to be concurrently installed into the same receptacle so long asthe total number of drives in all modules does not exceed the totaldrive capacity of the receptacle. Individual drives may also beinstalled into the receptacle without being organized into a sleeve andbe used in harmony with sets of drives organized into module sleeves.

These concepts are key enablers to computer applications in highsecurity military applications where drive sets must be removed rapidlyas well as high bandwidth streaming digital data such as recordingbroadcast video and digital cinematography cameras in future featuremovie production. In these and other applications, data recorded onmultiple hard drives in a RAID configuration are removed, installed andmanaged as a fault tolerant array so that failure a hard disk does notresult in the lose of data.

Hard drives selected for used in this invention are assumed to bedesigned to be hot pluggable but this is not an absolute requirement,but may limit use to installing and removing after the power has beenturned off. Furthermore the design is not limited to a particularcapacity, technology type, interface type, physical size or number ofdrives. Further, airflow may be designed from front to back of thedrives, but other configurations currently being implemented provide forside to side airflow.

FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of one example of the invention. Inthis example, the module 10 includes: multiple hard drives 12; a sleeve14; slide rails 16 for each hard drive; and a binder bar 18. FIG. 1Bshows an exploded view of the same example. In FIG. 1B, the sleeve 14 isshown with multiple slots 19 in the sides of the sleeve 14. The module10 serves to hold multiple hard drives 12 together as a single componentthat can be inserted into and removed from a computer. The individualhard drives are held together with a binder bar 18. The binder bar 18 isattached onto each individual hard drive so that they are held togetheras a group. In this example, the binder bar 18 is attached with aknurled knob to the side of each hard drive 12. This allows the binderbar to be installed and removed by hand.

FIG. 2 shows an exploded view of a single hard drive 20. In thisexample, a face plate 22 is mounted on the front of the hard drive rails24 a and 24 b which in turn are attached to hard drive 20. The faceplate serves as the attached point for the binder bar 18 shownpreviously in FIGS. 1A and 1B. Also shown, are two slide rails 24 a and24 b that are mounted on each side of the hard drive 20. In the exampleof FIG. 2, the face plate and slide rails are attached to the hard drivewith screws. However, other types of attachment mechanisms may be usedin alternative embodiments.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show different views of the module 32 as it is insertedinto a computer 30. FIG. 3A shows a partially exploded view of themodule 32 with a single hard drive 36 and the binder bar 39 detachedfrom the module. As previously mentioned, the slide rails 38 guide thehard drives 36 into the slots 37 of sleeve 34. The slide rails 38 extendoutside the sides sleeve. In this example, the slide rails 38 guide themodule 32 into the computer 30 by match up with module guide slotsinside the hard drive receptacle 33 that is located on the interior ofthe computer 30. Once the module 32 is inserted into the computer 30, aretainer bar 35 may be used to hold the module 32 in place.

The module 32 connects to the computer 30 through the hard drivereceptacle 33 that is mounted with the computer. The receptacle 33contains a porous backplane (not shown) mounted in the rear which isdesigned such that air can flow freely from front to back of the module.The backplane may be connected to the hard drive controller of thecomputer and required power supplies. In some embodiments, the backplaneattaches to a RAID controller. The RAID (Redundant Array of InexpensiveDisks) system is used to increase performance and provide faulttolerance for hard disk drives in computers.

Various RAID level standards are used with various levels of systemredundancy and/or fault tolerance that are well known to those of skillin the art. The present invention may use RAID-0, RAID-1, or RAID-5levels in various embodiments. In another embodiment, the invention mayuse a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) configuration that provides no systemredundancy with the hard drives.

FIGS. 4A-4D show examples of the present invention using modules ofdifferent numbers of hard drives. While the previous examples show amodule with 8 hard drives, different sized modules may be used togetherin combination to replicate a larger capacity module. For example, FIG.4A shows a similar computer 40 as shown previously in FIGS. 3A and 3B.However, two separate two-drive modules 42 are combined with afour-drive module 44 when inserted into the computer. This willduplicate the same performance as an eight-drive module but each smallercapacity module is an independent component which can be separatelyinstalled, removed and managed. FIG. 4B shows another example ofdifferent capacity modules. In this example, an eight-drive module 46 isinserted into a server 48 along with two separate two-drive modules 44.In this example, the modules are shown for use in a network server.

In addition to the vertical orientation shown in FIGS. 3A-4B, the modulemay be inserted in a horizontal orientation as shown in FIGS. 4C and 4D.In this embodiment, a pair of two-drive modules 42 are combined with afour-drive module 44 and inserted in a horizontal receptacle 45 that ismounted within the computer. Also shown are a porous backplane 47 and aretainer bar 49. The backplane 49 is mounted in the rear of thereceptacle 45 as shown in FIG. 4D. It provides a connection for themodule to a drive controller as described previously. The retainer bar49 attaches over the modules to hold them in place within the sleeve 45.While 2, 4 and 8 drive modules have been shown, it should be understoodthat other sized modules such as 12 or 16 drive modules may be usedbased on system requirements and space availability. The combinations ofmodules will only be limited by the size of the receptacle which isintegral to the alignment of the system.

It is important to understand that the slide rails fit loosely into theslots of the sleeve. The sleeve is merely an organizer for grouping thedrives together in a module. It floats within the space of thereceptacle of the computer system and it does not provide finalprecision alignment. When each drive is plugged into the sleeve, theprecision rails of the drive mate with the corresponding precision slotswithin the sleeve. This allows the individual hard drives to be insertedand dock with the backplane in the rear of the receptacle withoutdamaging the connection mechanisms. The key advantage of the system isto allow the each hard drive to independently float within the sleeve.This allows the modules and individual drives to be inserted and removedeasily and quickly. In some embodiments, the tolerance for the floatingof the hard drive within the sleeve is between 0.03 and 0.06 inches.This is typically a looser tolerance that a design for computer hardwarecomponents that are inserted into component receptacles.

One feature of the present invention allows each individual hard driveto be independently removed from the module. FIG. 5 shows a single harddrive 54 that is pulled out of the module 52 in a computer 50 after theretainer bar 58 and binder bar 56 are removed. In other embodiments, theindividual drives or even an entire module may be removed while thecomputer is in operation. This is known as “hot-pluggable” device. Theremoval or insertion of the drives will not affect the operation of aworking computer. The computer will automatically reconfigure andreinstall the hard drives and continue operation.

The hard drives used in some embodiments may be a “Serial AdvancedTechnology Attachment,” or “Serial ATA” (SATA) drive. Other embodimentsmay use a “Small Computer System Interface” (SCSI) drive that sometimescalled a “skuzzy” drive or a more modern version of SCSI called SerialAttached SCSI (SAS). These types of drives are well known to those ofordinary skill in the art. It should be understood that other drivetypes and configurations could be used with the present invention. Inthe examples shown in the Figures, a SATA drive is shown with a 500 GBstorage capacity. The physical size of the hard drives may vary withdifferent embodiments. Examples of hard drives that are used include a2.5″ drive and a 3.5″ drive. These dimensions refer to the diameter ofthe disk platter within the drive and not the exterior width. The 3.5″drive has an exterior width of 4.0 inches and an exterior thickness of1.0 inches. As shown in FIG. 6A, the center to center distance between3.5″ drives 62 in a module is 1.25 inches with a 0.25 inch air gap 64between drives. The 2.5″ drive has an exterior width of 70 mm and anexterior thickness of 9.5 mm. As shown in FIG. 6B, the center to centerdistance between 2.5″ drives 66 in a module is 12.5 mm with a 3 mm airgap 68 between drives.

The size of the gap between drives is important because it allowscooling air to be circulated through the module. A bigger air gap allowsgreater air flow between the hard drives and consequently greatercooling. Cooling of the hard drives is critical to ensure proper systemperformance. This is especially true in austere environments such as adesert or other hot climates. FIG. 7 shows a cut away view of an exampleof an internal cooling system. In this example, the hard drive module 72is installed in the computer 70. A bank of multiple cooling fans 74 areplaced directly behind the module. The fans 74 draw cooler air fromoutside the computer in through the air gaps between the drives of themodule. The air is then pulled out of the computer with exhaust fans 76located opposite the module 72 and receptacle. Portable computers manytimes need to operate at really high temperatures such as 60° C. Oneadvantage of the present invention is that fresh air is pulled throughthe air gap of the drives first before reaching the interior of thecomputer. This allows the hard drives to operate at or near the maximumof their specific temperature limits.

In other embodiments, the modules could be used with other computerdevices such as a portable workstation computer or a video system. Avideo system is used to record and store digital video data. Thesesystems are sometimes called a “digital film recorder (DFR)”, a “digitalvideo recorder (DVR)” or a “digital disk recorder (DDR)”. These systemstypically require a massive amount of data storage for a portabledigital video system. It is fully intended that the invention could beused with any such device that needs a removable hard drive.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the invention hasbeen improved to have better thermal performance by improving thecooling of the hard drives. FIGS. 8-11 show different views of thisembodiment. This embodiment is based on the use of low power 2.5″ SATAor SAS drives 80. However, other types of drives could be used. In thisembodiment, the rails 82 of the module 84 are modified to facilitateheat transfer from the hard disk drive to the chassis 86. The backplane88 is no longer required to be porous to allow air flow. Instead, it maybe solid. In this embodiment, heat is transferred from the hard drive tothe rails through a thermally conductive elastomeric coupler 90 which inturn conveys the heat to the metal chassis 92 of the module 84. Heat isthen transferred to a heat sink 94 at the rear of the module. The heatsink may be cooled by an optional fan 96. In other embodiments, the fanis not present and natural convection air flow provides all of thenecessary cooling.

This embodiment has the advantage of allowing the drives to be packedcloser together since air flow between them is not required. Thisembodiment works especially well with both rotating type disk drives andsolid state disk drives using flash memory technology.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised whichdo not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed here.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by theattached claims.

1. A hot pluggable module for organizing multiple hard drives in acomputer, comprising: a plurality of hard drives; a sleeve with aplurality of rail slots in the side of the sleeve; at least one sliderail that is attached to the side of each hard drive, where the sliderail is inserted into a rail slot of the sleeve so that the slide railis exposed externally to the sleeve and is in contact with a thermallyconductive elastomeric coupler; a hard drive receptacle that is mountedin the computer, where the receptacle includes guide slots that matewith the exposed slide rails of the hard drives; a heat sink mounted onthe receptacle that receives heat transferred from the plurality of harddrives through the thermally conductive elastomeric coupler; and abackplane located in rear of the hard drive receptacle, where thebackplane attaches the module to the computer.
 2. The module of claim 1,further comprising: a binder bar that binds each of the hard drivestogether.
 3. The module of claim 2, further comprising: a face platemounted on the front of each hard drive.
 4. The module of claim 3, wherethe binder bar binds the hard drives together by attaching to the faceplates of the hard drives.
 5. The module of claim 4, where the binderbar is attached to the hard drives with a knurled knob.
 6. The module ofclaim 1, where each hard drive comprises a SATA drive.
 7. The module ofclaim 1, where each hard drives comprises a SAS drive.
 8. The module ofclaim 1, where the each hard drive is a 2.5″ hard drive.
 9. The moduleof claim 1, where the sleeve has a capacity to hold two hard drives. 10.The module of claim 1, where the sleeve has a capacity to hold four harddrives.
 11. The module of claim 1, where the sleeve has a capacity tohold eight hard drives.
 12. The module of claim 1, where the sleeve hasa capacity to hold twelve hard drives.
 13. The module of claim 1, wherethe sleeve has a capacity to hold sixteen hard drives.
 14. The module ofclaim 1, where the slide rails fit into the rail slots so that each harddrive may float within the sleeve.
 15. The module of claim 14, where thehard drive may float within the sleeve between 0.03 to 0.06 inches. 16.The module of claim 1, where each hard drive may be separately removedfrom the module.
 17. The module of claim 1, further comprising: aretainer bar that secures the module inside the computer.
 18. The moduleof claim 1, where the computer comprises a portable workstationcomputer.
 19. The module of claim 18, where the computer comprises aserver.
 20. The module of claim 18, where the backplane connects to ahard drive controller of the computer.
 21. The module of claim 20, wherethe hard drive controller comprises a RAID controller.
 22. The module ofclaim 21, where computer has a JBOD configuration.